


The Buoy Isn't the Only Thing that Bobs Out of the Sea

by The_Lame_Goat



Series: Port City Randos [3]
Category: Superpose (Webcomic)
Genre: AU: Man Over Heaven, Gen, late night swimming, mysterious women from the sea, unlikely friends and even more unlikely chances of meeting again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 08:46:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17019510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Lame_Goat/pseuds/The_Lame_Goat
Summary: Kyo finds themself sharing a buoy with a stranger. What next but to take a kindred spirit out on a tour of the boardwalk?





	The Buoy Isn't the Only Thing that Bobs Out of the Sea

Kyo was not used to sharing their spot on buoys with others. They technically were not supposed to be out this far, especially not this late. No one else was brave enough. Badass enough. No one else hungered for this view. So if they were to be honest with themself, probably the first thing that they felt was a brief, yet sharp, feeling of possession. And then it was eclipsed by mind numbing confusion.

A figure pulled itself out of the water onto their buoy, the stringy muscles of her arms tensing under pale skin on the pull up, clothes so soggy they hung off their body like drenched rags. She maintained just the barest amount of public decency with an almost blaringly colored sports bra; hazard orange. The seconds ran thick, sluggish, as she hauled her torso onto the buoy, grabbing onto the poles, one of her hands landing just above Kyo's, sending fresh droplets of water onto their hand, stopping in a strange half splay over the buoy. 

Kyo opened their mouth, wetted their salt-flecked lips, and said the first thing that came to their mind. "Nice bra". 

The stranger sucked in some breaths of air, so deeply that her entire body moved with her, and looked to Kyo with large, bloodshot eyes. A hesitant "thanks" dragged its way out of her throat, roughened as if she had been gargling saltwater. 

Kyo's next instinct was to get off the buoy, whether it was to give the stranger room or a delayed shock of fear was anyone's guess, but something like compassion won out in the end; the sudden change in weight might end up tipping the buoy and flinging her off of it. 

And it did seem as if she could be flung off of there. She was small and pale, not just in skin tone but in _energy_ , as if she hadn't seen the sun properly in weeks. Had that sort of strung-out look weeds have after you pluck them and leave them to wither. 

"You want some food?" They asked. 

\--- 

Kyo had arrived on the boardwalk ready to cash in some debts from some of their favorite stands but to their surprise the stranger came prepared with cash, and quite a bit of it too. The woman pulled out something from a pouch strapped around her stomach ("Is that a fanny-pack?" "No, this is tactical, not tacky") that would have been a nice fat stack dry but was now flaccid and flopping and dripping, even after the two of them had spent a good ten minutes trying to dry the dollars out with sand and some brief desperate blowing from Kyo. Both of them had decided it was a lost cause, and that the vendors should be happy to receive money anyway. 

Being the boardwalk's always present bipedal leviathan was a title that commanded immediate attention from the tourists, but had started to lose its attention-grabbing power on the locals. Tonight however, with another sea cryptid in tow, there were gazes both new and old pointed squarely in Kyo's direction; remade an all-out spectacle for just one night. They could dig it. 

Kyo took the woman out on a full blown tour of their favorite stands, eagerly taking the burden of snack-holder while she pressed gritty dollars into the hands of vendors, even paying for an extra paper bag to stuff fried goods into. 

"So uh, this probably should've come before the whole bra comment...what's your name?" Kyo asked through a mouthful of sugary dough, opposite cheek bulging slightly as they maneuvered the food around to speak halfway clearly. The effort almost worked. 

"Tabbris." 

Kyo swallowed with a bit of difficulty, too much too fast in a hurried attempt to clear their mouth. "Oh man, that's one of those fancy names, huh? They still do that?"  
  
Tabbris reached over to pick blindly from the closest food bag, retrieved a handful of fried plantains, and shoved them into her mouth at once, chewing loudly. "They've fallen out of style."  
  
Kyo tilted the bag towards the woman, grimaced a bit as she took another great handful, barely managing to hold them in her hand. "So how come you haven't chosen another name? Tabbris sounds a bit, shit I dunno, old." 

"I am old." 

"Yeah but I mean like, most of that doesn't count, you guys don't age or anything." Kyo reached into the bag and felt around for a second before swearing under their breath and crumpling it in their free hand. "Hold this for a sec", they said, handing the other snack bag to Tabbris. They ran back to a passed trash bin, chucked the bag, and jogged back, weaving with practiced ease through the crowd to reach Tabbris. "Anyway--" 

"You never asked if I was an angel or not." Tabbris said abruptly, cutting them off. "And I never mentioned anything about being one." 

Kyo, unfazed, made a grabbing motion for the snack bag, and Tabbris handed it to them. "Yeah I mean, can I be honest? Random lady coming out of the ocean doesn't exactly happen every day. I would know." 

"I could've been a runaway or something." 

"Bullshit. ...ok actually you're right, maybe I just jumped to the most extreme conclusion." They took out a fritter and waved it pointedly in her direction. "But I was right!" 

"Yeah, lucky guess", Tabbris said dryly. "Bet you figured out I'm on the lam too." 

Kyo laughed, popped the fritter into their mouth, and chewed thoughtfully. "Wait, what?" 

"I'm defecting from the government." 

Kyo laughed again, this time more strained. "Like, the American government?" 

Tabbris shook her head. "The entire Service." She reached for the snacks again. Kyo moved the bag out of her reach, and her brows furrowed when she grabbed at air.  


Kyo sounded near giddy. "You're a S-E-P-A-R-A-T-I-S-T?" 

Tabbris followed along with their spelling, taking a few moments to piece it together. "Yeah, I'm a--", she lowered her voice. "--separatist, hand me a fritter though." 

Kyo tossed one her way and she only just caught it. "So why are you telling me all this then?" They asked. 

Tabbris shrugged. "No one's gonna believe you." 

  
"Wow. Ok. Alright fine yeah, that's legit I guess." 

"Just saying, you're like the local sea witch, nobody believed Cassandra or whatever." Tabbris wiped her fingers on her loose shirt, then flinched. 

"Oh _hell_ ", she muttered, muted despite her physical jolting. She reached into her bra to pull out a ziploc bag. Kyo recognized the type, it was high quality, that good shit for when you absolutely _needed_ your snacks fresh. Inside was another plastic bag, lower quality by the look of it, and secured inside that bag was something folded into a not-quite perfect square. 

Kyo looked over her shoulder as she hurriedly unfolded the square, revealing a worn but somewhat recent looking photo. The picture was a lone person, white with dark brown hair, arms folded across their chest. They faced the camera with a sort of sternly forced smile, little more than a sliver of upper teeth, eyes barely discernible and marred from a folding crease of the photo. The two bags seemed to have done an ok job keeping the photo dry, but water damage creeped at the very edges of the right side. 

"So uh, who's that?" Kyo asked, pointing. 

Tabbris moved the photo just fast enough to prevent contact with Kyo's sugary finger, glowering. "My boyfriend." 

"He's like, that cushiony twink type, huh." 

Tabbris' frown deepened. "Sure." She folded carefully back along the worn lines and followed through, photo into bag into slightly more expensive bag, this time shoving the makeshift package into her shorts pocket. "We've gone in a circle", she said as she looked up.  
  
"No we haven't", Kyo started, but then glanced around. "Well shit, I was gonna take you to the arcade." 

"That's fine, I'm kinda tired of walking anyway". She pointed at some picnic tables. "Why don't we sit for a bit." 

\--- 

Kyo had lost track of how many minutes had passed since they settled at a picnic table, the only one left relatively clean of bird shit and wrappers. They had been folding the now snackless snack bag into sloppy rectangles for at least five minutes, or was it two, watching Tabbris as she watched the hubbub of the boardwalk. 

"You sure there isn't anything else you wanna do?" They asked. 

Tabbris shrugged, particularly focused on someone arguing with a couple of food stand owners. 

"Why don't you tell me some more things about the renegade angel lifestyle." 

"Like what?" 

Deftly, Kyo's hands worked to unfold the bag and smooth it flat on the table. "Tell me what you look like." 

That made Tabbris turn, her arms outstretched theatrically. " _Tada_ ", she said, wiggling her fingers. 

Kyo frowned. "No I mean like-- I don't know, what do they call that thing-- your other form, the cool ones. Super Angel Fighting Form." 

" _Extra-spatial form_?", Tabbris corrected. "I've never actually had the chance to really look in a mirror while like that so really I don't have a clue." 

Kyo sighed and worried the bag in their hands a bit before perking up. "Ok ok how about this? This'll work. You tell me how it _feels_ and I'll draw it out based on your description. Like a police sketch artist!" 

"Guess it couldn't hurt." 

"Ok, fuckin' sweet, wait here." 

Kyo slid out of their seat and disappeared around the corner. Tabbris could hear distant haggling for pencil and paper, and from the sounds of it Kyo was going for the high quality stuff, copy paper. When they came back they had with them an empty looking pen and some napkins they stole off another table. Tabbris pretended not to notice.  
  
The moment Kyo sat down they immediately began to scribble on their palm, wrist flicking back and forth rapidly to bring forth the ink. A minute in and Kyo sighed in relief, spreading napkins smoothly over the table, and motioned with their scribbled hand for Tabbris to begin. 

She cleared her throat. "I've seen some of my files, seems like they've labeled me as 'Masculine Class'; essentially I pass the weight and muscle mass bracket for "female" forms, whatever that means. 

"Shitty, but also sounds like you're fucking ripped." 

Tabbris couldn't help smiling at that. "Sure, yeah. Other things….well, my head feels huge. Huge enough to fit four tusks. Lots of teeth in general, to be honest. Small eyes though." 

Kyo nodded as they drew. "Cool cool, what about your legs?" 

"I walk on all fours." 

Kyo put up a hand to stop her. "I really wish you would have told me that in the beginning", they huffed. 

"Sorry?" 

"It's ok, I can fix it." They rotated the napkin. "Ok, continue." 

"I walk on all fours but I have like two pairs of arms. Legs. ...actually, they're more like flippers. Oh, and they have little feelers or something on them, I've never really bothered to see what they do but I can feel them in the water. That's about all I can remember right now." 

The pen moved fluidly despite the rough picnic table and textured napkin, worked with a sort of flourish that came as the result of hundreds of rushed napkin drawings. However, when Kyo clicked the tip of the pen away and pushed the finished product forwards, it took everything in Tabbris not to burst out laughing. So she made a choked sort of chuckle instead. 

Kyo's expectant expression turned into one of confusion. "Hey, what's so funny?" 

Tabbris pointed at the picture with her index finger, tapping it rapidly on the edge as if trying to speak morse code, her other hand clasped over her mouth. The drawing featured a notably muscular figure turned sideways, clad in nothing but shorts and a bra, its four finned arms flexing with tentacles popping out of the biceps. One hand, instead of a fist, was flipping the bird. The face seemed to be crafted with a bit more of a delicate touch, but only the face. Its hair, short like hers, stuck up like spikes on the head. The entire body was inexplicably covered in tiger stripes. 

"It's just, uh, here, give me the pen." Kyo reluctantly handed her the pen and watched as she drew something that looked close to a hippo/crocodile hybrid, simple and small towards the bottom of the napkin. 

Kyo picked up the picture and brought it closer to their face, then brought it back down to look at Tabbris. "You should have told me you were more animal like, there's like a furry artist somewhere around here, I think." 

Tabbris stood up and groaned, stretching her arms. "Yeah, maybe next time." She started heading towards the beach, and Kyo jumped out of their seat, shoving the napkins into their pocket, bumping their thigh on the side of the picnic table with a low curse, and caught up with her. 

"Wait hey, where are you going?" They asked. 

She turned around, keeping her pace as she walked backwards. "Well long term, Finland, but short-term, couldn't tell you." 

Kyo found themself having to jog to keep up with her now, despite their legs being longer. "You're just gonna leave on that note? At least give me your email or something!" 

Tabbris slowed down a bit. "What would you need my email for?" 

"Artistic redemption, I can email you a more true to life portrait, fully rendered. The stuff people cash out for." 

"My email is connected to the Service, it's probably being tracked." Tabbris seemed to think on it for a moment. "How about you give me yours. I'll get back to you." 

Kyo's face fell. "Are you legit gonna get back to me or are you just saying shit?" 

"You're just gonna have to trust me." Tabbris drew out her photo, and handed it to Kyo. "Write it on the back of this. You got that pen, right?" 

"Yeah." Kyo clicked the pen several times before writing their email on the discolored back of the photo, signing it with a tiny Yugi Mutou head. "You gotta promise to get back to me, alright?" 

Tabbris nodded. "If you don't get my email, it's because the government caught me." 

\--- 

That night a great gray back seemed to roll out of the water before disappearing under the black curtain of the ocean. Few saw it. Some loudmouth would bring it up during an interview for an entirely different situation. The news would mention a possible whale sighting for a couple of days. 

That night Kyo bobbed up and down with the buoy in Tabbris' wake. They curled their fingers tight around the red metal one last time, and attempted to follow the ripples back to shore. It was an impossible task, the ripples would be far gone by the time their feet would hit the sandbar. 


End file.
